


Off-limits

by meli_fan



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: AryaxGendry Week, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-24
Updated: 2014-07-24
Packaged: 2018-02-10 05:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2012319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meli_fan/pseuds/meli_fan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If he looks back on it, he realises that the day he realised Arya has a compassionate nature, the rest of the things about her he thought he hated- her hardheadedness, her competitive nature, her mocking jokes and her bloody pragmatism -  actually became the things he loved about her.</p><p>Entry for the Arya and Gendry Week on Tumblr. For the prompt "Forbidden". Gendry loves Arya, but she's off-limits.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Off-limits

**Author's Note:**

> As always, excuse any typos or mistakes.

He was not allowed to even look at her with more than respect and obedience.

 

Not kidding. They say Edric Storm didn't recognize who she was and asked her out once. Somehow Aegon found out and he gave Edric two options: exile in Lys or becoming cheddar cheese thanks to an AK-47.

 

Turns out that's not the real story. She tells him that Edric not only asked her out, but groped her and threatened with more. So she beat him to a pulp and gave him three choices: exile to Lys, becoming cheddar cheese or having her trained dog bite him to pieces.

 

"Aegon found out because, well, I had to explain to him why suddenly one of his employees disappeared." She proudly tells him with a thick Northern accent.

 

They say the Starks are harder than the strongest winter. They say that the Lannister and Boltons may be vicious, but they trembled when the youngest Starks got their vengeance. They have a reputation, and no matter how hard their business hit them, the youngest Starks turned out to be as dangerous as a winter storm.

 

They were five families. He belonged to none of them. The Martells, who dealt the kind of drugs that relaxed you and they were said to dabble in prostitution business too. The Lannister, who were in the black market of precious stones and luxuries of different kind. The Tyrells, who apparently broke a million labor laws in foreign countries with their fancy goods, like carpets and curtains and jewelry. The Targaryens, who no one knew exactly what they did but it was illegal, dangerous and made it’s member crazy. Some said they made weapons, other said they made drugs with magical recipes. He honestly only knew they apparently liked horses.

 

And the Starks. Starks of old who had always ruled the North. Starks who always created weapons out of the need of protecting human kind from the dangerous creatures who lived beyond northern frontiers. And that eventually turned into a shady business. No one knows much of how they went from simple family of manufacturers to one of the greatest and most powerful families. Only recent history is know.

 

And kids like him, born and raised among the slums, they know this kind of history. They may not know much about math or literature, but they learn to feed themselves with one hand, and shoot with the other. And which people can feed you if you shoot for them.

 

Apparently, Ned Stark was raised in a  boarding school. Arryn School of Boys. Where a boy like Gendry could never ever be sent  The one that teached him good values and the line that divided legal from illegal. He met Robert Baratheon, who hated the Targaryen-dominated mafia. And so when they got old enough, they worked together to tear it down, with the Lannister joining in at the last minute of their crusade just to brutally get rid of almost every Targaryen on the face of Earth. And they did, at the cost of many lives and several grudges created among families. So then one day many years later, Lannisters got their chance to be on top again. And they took it.

They called it the Red Wedding. A lot of people died. Ned Stark, his best friend Robert. His wife Catelyn Stark, his oldest son Robb and his wife Jeyne among other.

 

He asked about it to Arya once. She was waiting to meet someone for a dangerous exchange and he was her unofficial bodyguard. As soon as the words flew out of his mouth he wanted to take them back. They had both become close friend, confidants even, but he had never dared to ask her for something so personal and traumatic.

 

“Were you there when it happened?”

 

“Yes.” She would not look at him. She simply threw her finished cigarette to the ground and lit another. “It was a damn bloodbath.”

 

*/*

 

 _Stop looking at her. Gods be damned stop looking at her._ His mind told him, more like reprimanded him. Arya catched him looking and offered him a cheeky smile. It made a small laugh escape from his lips. _Stop you dumb fuck. Her man is right fucking there. Your boss. The one with a hundred goons at his service to kill you should you do anything to displease him. STOP LOOKING._

 

His mind was even more stubborn that he thought himself to be.

 

He did not mean for it to happen. He was only working at the service of his boss. He drove her around, helped her with some business. She had refused to have a bodyguard, so Aegon simply told her he was there to assist her in anything. Gendry didn’t took it too personal.

 

Boys like him, they were used to the treatment. He honestly hated his “work”. But as a kid, then as a young man, he had very few opportunities. He and his mom could live by with her waitress pay and his mechanic job. But when she got cancer, he needed help. And so he went to the only person who he knew could lend him money.

 

That was the problem with this gangs, with the mafia. You didn’t want to be with them. You hated to live in their world. But then again, if you needed something, they were there. They made sure to please the community and give out a hand. They were brutal and ruthless with anyone who went against their way, they had a nicely covered reign of terror. But gods be damn, when he knocked on Aegon Targaryen’s door, and asked help because his mother was going to fucking die, the man not only gave him money to live better, but made connections and got her treated by the best doctors. In exchange, just become his personal mechanic to take care of his beloved cars.

 

Then, do some work to do some risky business.

 

Then, leave your old job and just work full time for him.

 

Then, do the illegal things your mother didn’t even wanted you to do in the first place.

 

Then, take care of his girlfriend.

 

“She’s my girl, you hear me? The one. I need you to keep her safe, even if she will hate you for it.” Aegon had laid his hand on Gendry’s shoulder. And damn it, he understood. This man had lost almost his entire family, he was asking him to protect the one thing that mattered for him. Gendry knew what it felt like. Even before Aegon properly introduced them, he heard her voice, shouting at her boyfriend he was stupid.

 

“Who do you think I am? Some tamed beast that need to be looked after?” Her voice rang strong with anger.

 

“I just one someone take care of you like I would if I were by your side. To die for you like I would!”

 

He did not want to die for some girl, But in his life, in this life they all had, it is forbidden to say “no” to the big boss when he asks you something.

 

No one ever told him, it was forbidden to fall in love with his girl too.

 

At first, he was pretty sure Arya hated him. And boy did he hate her too. At first she was rude and very demanding of him, while at the same time constantly calling him ‘stupid’ and deeming him as useless. He found her obnoxiously bossy and arrogant.

 

“Listen, I don’t need you to follow me around.” She’d say the first few days.

 

“Listen, I don’t need you to make this more unbearable for me.” He’d answer. Because he was told to assist her, not to kiss the ground she walks on. If she’s gonna be a brat about it then he will be an asshole about it.

 

At first they barely spoke to one another. Then they found out some common interest, like music and movies. Actually she mostly though his taste in just about everything was shit, but they have some common places where they could start nice conversations. He started to bear with her, but never quite shrugged off the feeling that she was not someone to like. For he worked side by side with her, and knew how cold she could be. How scary her determination and fierceness was. How the way she handled guns, drugs and dangerous situation made everyone bow to her in respect.

 

He thought her to be just like all the rest of them.

 

Until one day, he saw her spare the life of a little boy. He was at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and for all they know, he could easily give descriptions of their wrong.doings to the police.

 

“Go home, to your mother.” Arya tells him, lowering her gun, and never once breaking eye contact with the kid who was frightened and covered in blood. “Run. And never ever speak of this.”

 

Clegane thinks she has gone soft, and telsl her so in the ride back to their safe house.

 

“Valuing life is not weakness.”

 

“Whatever you say, she-wolf. He was just a kid, easy to eliminate now, not so much when he’s older and can shoot right back at us.”

 

“And disregarding it is not strenght.” Arya gives The Hound one cold look and adds quickly. “Remember it was my sister’s value of your life what kept you from meeting the same end your brother and his friends had.”

 

That shut Clegane up for the rest of the trip. And made him realise that it was more to Arya Stark than just the typical mafia girl.

 

If he looks back on it, he realises that the day he realised Arya has a compassionate nature, the rest of the things about her he thought he hated- her hardheadedness, her competitive nature, her mocking jokes and her bloody pragmatism -  actually became the things he loved about her.

 

“Clegane, get out.” Arya voice comes as soon as they’re in the safehouse. “Call Aegon and tell him the deed is done.” The man nods, and leaves them be. They stay quiet in the car and Gendry doesn’t know how to properly tell her he admires what she did, do he just blurts it out.

 

“It was good.” He looks at her, but her pensative eyes are looking at something beyond the road. “What you did there, saving the kid.” Their eyes lock and maybe for the first time, he realises what a beautiful shade of grey they are.

 

“I’m glad,” she starts but quickly shuts her mouth. “I’m glad you’re the kind of person who appreciates the choice of sparing a kid’s life.” She looks at him, and he knows what she means.

 

_We live among some monsters in our world, work side by side with them, but we know better than to become those monsters._

 

*/*

 

“It shows, you know?” Thoros is looking at him with a grin, but his eyes show worry as well.

 

“What are you talking about?” Gendry stops looking at the redhead and goes back to what he was looking before. The gang was all gathered in the safe house. Having an impromptu  party. Arya was dancing. He never knew her to be a good dancer, but it showed in her movements that she had some training.

 

His mind shouldn’t be thinking about her body movements. He couldn’t allow it. It was dangerous. Suddenly, he knew what Thoros was talking about.

 

“You know what I’m talking about. And if I can tell, so can others. And don’t ever underestimate Aegon’s ability to judge a man.”

 

“He makes me spent night and day next to her. Don’t you think if he suspected something or doubted me he would have already done something?” Gendry’s bravado is all fake really. He’s scared shitless at the idea that Aegon may take repercussions  on his mother should he become aware that he’s been slowly falling in love with his girl for the past year.

 

“I’m just telling you to scold your face. Because I’m sure even she can tell you’re in love with her.” Gendry can’t help the hopeful look that takes over his faces, but Thoros gives him a sad smile. “It doesn’t matter how she feels anyway. She’s off limits for you.”

 

*/*

 

He finds her crying one day. They’re at the Targaryen mansion, and he was ready to go home. But he notices she’s not wearing her usual practical jeans but rather a cute skirt with a nice top. No heels, but sandals. She looked beautiful, even if he found the sight slightly odd. He stumbled on her in one of the benches near the garage, and had nowhere to hide when she looked up and her red eyes.

 

“Oh. Hi.” He scratches his head, and looks away. He gives her a moment to clean herself up.

 

No one, only her family perhaps, is allowed to see Arya Stark cry. No one needed to tell him that, he knew it the moment he heard her life story.

 

“Hey. Sorry.” She sniffled. “You wouldn’t have a cigarette by any chance right?”

 

“No, I… I don’t smoke.” Her eyebrows shot up in surprise, he didn’t blame her. Most of the peopl in their business smoked, a good relief for the stress of their lives. “My mum. She uh, she has lung cancer. Got a transplant a few years ago. She’s good now but convinced me very well of not smoking ever again”

 

“Oh. Of course, I knew that. Sorry, you obviously must hate the idea of sticking poison in your lungs.” She let out a short humorless laugh. He had gotten so used to hearing her laugh fully next to him on their daily rides, that the hollow sound of her fake laugh made him cringe.

 

“If it helps, I don’t go around preaching it like a public service announcement.”

 

That made her laugh,which made him smile, which was something that was not forbidden, but Seven Hells, it lead down a dangerous road.

 

“So uh… you ok? No one hurt you right? Want me to beat someone to a pulp for you?” He was not supposed to ask, but damn it all, this girl was much more important to him that she realised. He wanted to know which asshole made her cry.

 

“Aegon made me cry.” She admitted bitterly. Well, there was nothing he could do against that. “In any normal day that would have made me beat him to a pulp.”

 

“So why didn’t you?” She raised her eyebrows in surprise again and he shrugged. “He may  be my boss, but even I know you’re his boss.”

 

She let out one of her short humorless laughs again. “Yeah well… Oh… I don’t know really.” She looked away. “I just…. Have you ever just lost the will to fight for something?” She asks him.

 

“Not really.” He had not. He had refused to let his mother die, to the point where he worked for a mafia boss who had no problem sending his own girlfriend to kill his enemies so he could pay her the best medical attention.

 

“Me neither, not really.” She looks away, lost in her thoughts like she does often. “But lately I think it may be happening for me.”

 

He had met her youngest brother, Rickon, who told him Arya had changed a lot after the Starks extracted her vengeance. That she used to be a cheerful spirited girl, but was now much more brooding and quiet. He certainly never met this cheerful girl, but he thinks she’s still spirited. She’s constantly active and ready to get up and do her things. But on more than one occasion, they had both fallen silent in the car, Arya looking out the window as if expecting for the views to give her answers to some unspoken question.

 

He has seen Aegon leaving her alone when she’s in one of those moods, and the guys from the gang simply ignoring her when she’s not their usual willful leader. But he had never liked her best as he has when she shows herself as how she truly feels. And if that sometimes means she becomes brooding and somber, then he will keep on loving her like that.

 

He goes to sit next to her, much much closer that he ought to, enough to feel the heat that emanates from her skin, and the perfume that makes his stomach flatter. “Why is that?”

 

She looks at him then, her tears now dried and he realised how vulnerable she looked. It was not something that suited her, but at the same time, he appreciated the idea that she could be this way with him. _But she’s not supposed to be vulnerable with you. And you’re not supposed to appreciate it._ A voice told him.

 

“You know anything about me? I mean, have you ever heard…”

 

“Yes. No.” He’s quick to answer and quick to correct himself. Truth is he knows some, but he knows what people knows, which is next to nothing. Because she’s a fucking mystery. Everyone knows what happened to her family. Then no one knows for sure what was of her for a whole bunch of years, before she came back and avenged her family along with her siblings. The Targaryens joined them in effectively exterminating the Lannisters, and Aegon rebuilt his family old’s empire, closely associated to the Starks thanks to his relationship with Arya. “I mean. I know you survived.”

 

No one really knows how, and he has heard many tales of what she endured in those years and how she managed to get through that. But he has never known if even half of it is a certain truth.

 

“Yes. I did. And you know what? At some point, I did not know why I kept fighting all the shit the Gods threw at me. I think at some point I just did it to be contrary. But I never lost the will to fight them. And now... “ He took her hand and held it tight because no, it was impossible. Arya wasn’t the one to lose the will to live. She wasn’t suicidal, she has said it so many times. That she lived for her family, for the her siblings, her dearest brother at the Wall.

 

Her eyes shot up in surprise at his gesture. “Arya..I…” He was not supposed to say. He shouldn’t… he couldn’t.

 

“Fuck. I just can’t keep on fighting for our relationship. I just lost the will to. I’m pretty sure that’s a clear sign that it’ over.” She admits and he breathes out a sigh of relief. For a moment he had feared…

 

And then he lets out the most inappropriate  laugh ever. Arya practically screamed murder with her eyes.

 

“I’m sorry! Sorry!” She playfully hit him in the arm, but he could see the trace of a smile on the corner of her lips. “It’s just that…”

 

“Oh I know… That was dramatic wasn’t it?” She’s laughing again. Gods, she should be banned from laughing next to him. It makes him want to kiss her senseless. And that is definitely forbidden. “Oh stop it! The feelings were real! My relationship is over don’t laugh you stupid idiot!”

 

“Arya… I-” his laughter stops, because she’s looking at him, and her grey eyes are sparkling again. And who allowed her to be so beautiful when her eyes sparkled and her lips smiled? His hand does not listen to warnings, and moves behind her head, slowly pushing her closer to him. Were they always this close?

 

Was a forbidden fruit always been so inciting?

 

Her lips were a bit dry when they first touched. But warm, warmer than the way one would expect of Arya Stark. She was clearly a much better kisser than he was, but her pace was tender, and the fire in their touch real. As real as trees and the moon and the rules that kept him apart from her.

 

He broke the kiss, even if his body screamed at him to hold her and never ever let go, his self preservation instinct told him that if anyone found them at that very instant, Gendry would become the cheddar cheese Edric Storm was once threatened to become.

 

“Wait, Arya, we-. I can’t. Aegon…” his eyes couldn’t make the choice between looking at her eyes or her lips.”

 

“Screw him. He doesn’t love me any more that I do him, he made that clear to me today. We…” She bits her lip, but there is no insecurity in her voice when she speaks again. “We can give this a try, Gendry.”

 

“Arya, I- I have so much at risk you don’t understand… And Aegon.” He can’t help it. He’s afraid of the powerful Targaryen as much as he is bound to him by loyalty. They’re not friends, but he helped him in a time of need, and has never treated him with anything less than respect or dignity.

 

“Oh Gendry. If you fear his repercussions, please don’t let that stop us. He is not a purposefully cruel person. He wouldn’t do anything more than have his goons beat you up.” He gulps at the idea, but he still squeezes her hand. “And honestly, you think I would let him hurt you? My family is just as powerful as his, you know?”

 

He gives her a quick kiss, because he doesn’t deserve her, not really.

 

“And I won’t let anyone-” this time she kisses him briefly, “get in the way of you and me.”

 

But he can still have her.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if this is late, but I was on a trip and I was unable to post.  
> kudos and reviews are love! Enjoy the Gendrya week!


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